Stolen national treasure case stopped

The alleged theft of a “national treasure” – when a collection of jewelry, gold and money was collected among Slovaks back in the 1990s – from the Matica Slovenská cultural institution was not a theft.

The police have halted the investigation of the allegedly stolen national treasure of a cultural revival institution Matica Slovenská, which was created from people’s donations in the 1990's: from ordinary Slovaks’ jewels, gold and money.

Matica Slovenská informed on the disappearance of part of the national treasure last year, the Sme daily wrote on February 13. This announcement was followed by several complaints.

“The prosecution halted on November 6 last year, as the deed investigated is not a criminal offence, and there is no reason to proceed further in this case,” Žilina Regional police spokesperson Jana Baloghová told the public-service broadcaster RTVS.

What happened to the Slovak "national treasure"?

Slovaks raised money and valuables for the “national treasure” between 1993 and 1996, to be further used for enlightenment, education and cultural events connected with Slovak traditions and nationality. Around €1 million have allegedly been collected in cash, gold and jewels.

However, Matica Slovenská allegedly lost more than €800,000 of the collection when it invested in the Shares’ Cooperative Slovak Investments (Podielové Družstvo Slovenské Investície), which went bankrupt.

Last year, the then-head of Matica Slovenská, Marián Tkáč, pointed to the discrepancies. He opined that several dozen gold items were missing in the collection, the SITA newswire wrote.